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Jet lag is temporary and usually doesn't need treatment. Symptoms often improve within a few days, though they sometimes last longer.

If you're a frequent traveler bothered by jet lag, your health care provider may prescribe light therapy or medicines.

Light therapy

Your body's internal clock is influenced by sunlight, among other factors. When you travel across time zones, your body must adjust to a new daylight schedule. This allows you to fall asleep and be awake at the right times.

One way to adjust to a new daylight schedule is through light therapy. This involves exposure to an artificial bright light or lamp that mimics sunlight. You use the light for a specific amount of time when you're meant to be awake. Light therapy comes in a variety of forms, including a light box that sits on a table, a desk lamp or a light visor that you wear on your head.

Light therapy may be useful if you're a business traveler and are often away from natural sunlight during the day in a new time zone.

Medications

• Nonbenzodiazepines, such as zolpidem (Ambien, Edluar, ZolpiMist), eszopiclone (Lunesta) and zaleplon (Sonata).
• Benzodiazepines, such as temazepam (Restoril) and midazolam (Nayzilam).

You can take these medicines — sometimes called sleeping pills — during your flight and for several nights afterward as you adjust to a new time zone. Side effects are uncommon but may include nausea, vomiting, amnesia, sleepwalking, confusion and morning sleepiness.

Although these medicines appear to help you sleep better and longer, you may still feel jet lag symptoms during the day. The medicines are usually only recommended for people who haven't been helped by other treatments.

Lifestyle and home remedies

Being exposed to sunlight helps reset your internal clock. It's the most powerful natural tool for regulating the sleep-wake cycle.

Morning light exposure can usually help you adjust to an earlier time zone after traveling east. Evening light helps you adapt to a later time zone after traveling west.

Plan ahead to determine the best times for light exposure based on your departure and destination points and overall sleep habits:

• Before your trip. You can start light therapy up to three days before traveling to help you adjust to the new time zone once you arrive. If you're traveling east, try waking one hour earlier than your usual wake time and get at least one hour of light exposure. Do this daily until you leave for your trip, waking one hour earlier each day. Also adjust your bedtime to one hour earlier each night if possible. For westward travel, delay your wake and bedtimes.

At your destination. If you've traveled east and crossed 3 to 5 time zones, try avoiding bright daylight first thing in the morning. Try to get several hours of bright light exposure in mid- to late morning.

If you're crossing more time zones or traveling west, avoid bright light the morning of arrival but seek sunshine in the early afternoon. During the day, dark glasses can help block out light when you need to avoid exposure. At night, draw the window blinds or drapes or use a sleep mask. For each day on your trip, gradually shift your light exposure earlier.

Combining light exposure with exercise such as walking or jogging may help you adapt to the new time even faster.

Beverages with caffeine such as coffee, espresso and soft drinks may help offset daytime sleepiness. Choose drinks with caffeine wisely. Don't have caffeine after midday since it may make it even harder to fall asleep or sleep well.

Alternative medicine

As a sleep aid, melatonin has been widely studied and is a common jet lag treatment. The latest research seems to show that melatonin aids sleep during times when you wouldn't typically be resting, making it beneficial for people with jet lag.

Your body treats melatonin as a darkness signal, so melatonin tends to have the opposite effect of bright light.

The time when you take melatonin is important. If you've flown east and need to reset your internal clock to an earlier schedule, take melatonin nightly in the new time zone. You can take it until you adjust to local time.

If you've flown west and need to reset your body's internal clock to a later schedule, take melatonin in the mornings in the new time zone until you adjust.

A dose as small as 0.5 milligram seems just as effective as a dose of 5 milligrams or higher, although some studies show that higher doses are better at making you sleep. Take melatonin 30 minutes before you plan to sleep. Or ask your health care provider about the proper timing.

Side effects are uncommon but may include dizziness, headaches, daytime sleepiness, loss of appetite, and possibly nausea and disorientation. Don't drink alcohol when taking melatonin.

Additional possible remedies

Some people use exercise to try to ease the effects of jet lag.

If you want to try an alternative therapy, such as an herbal supplement, be sure to check with your health care provider first. Some therapies may interact with other medicines or cause side effects.

• Lee Y, et al. Circadian rhythms, disease and chronotherapy. Journal of Biological Rhythms. 2021; doi:10.1177/07487304211044301.
• Janse van Rensburg DC, et al. Managing travel fatigue and jet lag in athletes: A review and consensus statement. Sports Medicine. 2021; doi:10.1007/s40279-021-01502-0.
• Kryger M, et al., eds. Shift work, shift-work disorder, jet lag and jet lag disorder. In: Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine. 7th ed. Elsevier; 2022. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
• Loscalzo J, et al., eds. Sleep disorders. In: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 21st ed. McGraw Hill; 2022. https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
• Kellerman RD, et al. Sleep disorders. In: Conn's Current Therapy 2022. Elsevier; 2022. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed Oct. 31, 2022.
• Jet lag. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/jet-lag. Accessed Oct. 26, 2022.
• During EH, et al. Irregular sleep-wake, non-24h sleep-wake, jet lag and shift work disorders. In: Clinical Sleep Medicine: A Comprehensive Guide for Mental Health and Other Medical Professionals. American Psychiatric Association Publishing. https://ebooks.appi.org. Accessed Oct. 28, 2023.
• Steele TA, et al. Circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders: A contemporary review of neurobiology, treatment and dysregulation in neurodegenerative disease. Neurotherapeutics. 2021; doi:10.1007/s13311-021-01031-8.
• Moroni I, et al. Pharmacokinetics of exogenous melatonin in relation to formulation, and effects on sleep: A systematic review. Sleep Medicine Reviews. 2021; doi:10.1016/j.smrv. 2021.101431 .
• Melatonin. Facts & Comparisons eAnswers. https://fco.factsandcomparisons.com. Accessed Nov. 1, 2022.

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Planning a long-haul flight? Here's how to outsmart jet lag

Andrea Muraskin

If you're trying to squeeze some travel into the last few weeks of summer, you'll want to get the most out of your vacation. And nothing ruins a trip to the Louvre or a scuba-diving excursion like your body telling you it's time for bed NOW. So can you "hack" jet lag, so to speak? Or at least mitigate it?

We posed the question to NPR's International Desk and got an array of helpful answers from our globetrotting staff.

This story comes from NPR Health, a newsletter covering the science of healthy living. To get more stories like this, click here to subscribe .

For instance, NPR producer Greg Dixon is enthusiastic about an app for jet lag called Time Shifter . "You input your travel schedule and it spits out a plan for a couple days before and a couple days after your flights, advising you when to get/avoid natural light, drink coffee, take melatonin, etc.," Greg writes. "It has worked really, really well."

Research on jet lag is limited, and most of it is on athletes, who — much like NPR's journalists — are expected to jet across time zones and perform at their best. A recent consensus statement to help athletes manage jet lag and travel fatigue in the journal Sports Medicine , offers few guiding principles.

David Stevens, a physiologist from Adelaide, Australia, who co-authored the statement while working at a sleep research center at Flinders University, breaks it down. First off, you'll want to understand the workings of your body's circadian rhythms, that is, our internal clock that tells us when it's time to fall asleep and when to wake up.

Then you can take advantage of what sleep researchers call zeitgebers or time-givers, external factors that set the pace of these rhythms. Light is the most important one but exercise, meals and even social cues can also trigger sleepiness or wakefulness.

Shots - Health News

I usually wake up just ahead of my alarm. what's up with that, get a head start.

Whether you use an app or not, Stevens suggests starting your time zone adjustment a few days before your trip begins. "One of your best strategies to prepare for any westward travel is you just go to sleep, for example, an hour later each night," Stevens says. And go ahead and allow yourself to stay in bed an hour later each morning as well.

Managing jet lag involves paying attention to your light intake and other cues to synch your internal clock to a new time zone. Jenny Kane/AP hide caption

Managing jet lag involves paying attention to your light intake and other cues to synch your internal clock to a new time zone.

Things get tougher when you're heading eastward. "It's brutal from west to east. It usually takes me 10 days to adjust, say from Washington to Tokyo," writes NPR's Asia editor Vincent Ni.

Stevens says there's a simple explanation for this. Going to bed later than normal – as you do when traveling westward – is relatively easy for our body clocks to understand, because you get more tired in the evening. "My body's going, hang on, you're meant to be asleep now, why aren't you asleep?" he says.

But when you travel eastward, you have to try to go to sleep when you're not yet tired, and that's just... confusing to your circadian clock, Stevens says. "The body's going, hang on, you're not meant to be asleep yet. What are you doing?" And to make matters worse, one of the body's peak performance times, when we're naturally most alert, is around 7 p.m., he adds.

So in these cases, Stevens says, prep a few days before your trip by going to sleep earlier than normal and getting up early to take in lots of morning light.

Onboard sleep tricks and aids

Stevens says it's a good idea to sleep on the flight if you can, though the consensus statement notes it's best to align your sleep with what would be night in your city of departure, so dozing off comes more naturally. That can mean a nighttime flight is a good choice.

Of course falling asleep in a tight plane seat (short of upgrading to business class) can be nearly impossible for some of us. NPR's Vincent Ni, however, has onboard shuteye down to a science: "I fill my rucksack with solid but soft material, put it on the tray (in economy class) and lay my forehead on it. Key for me is the eyeshade and ear plugs."

Now as you might expect for a group of travel-hardened foreign correspondents, several International Desk members reported using substances not naturally found in the body.

"If I need to try to sleep on the flight (and it's not super early in the morning – I'm not that bad) then I find a glass of wine or two is my sleep aid!" writes Beirut-based correspondent Ruth Sherlock. Others mentioned taking prescription sedatives like zolpidem (Ambien) to nod off.

6 tips to help you overcome your fear of flying

Stevens recommends against prescription sedatives because "it's not really a physiological sleep," and you can develop a dependency.

As for alcohol, Stevens says the short answer is "no." – it can disrupt sleep. Although he confesses on a recent trip to London that he "may have had a pint as soon as I landed, but that was at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon," In other words, a good 6 hours before bedtime.

Once you land: Manage your light intake

If willing yourself into slumber before the sun goes down isn't working out for you, that's no surprise, says Stevens. That's because light is the most important of the zeitgebers or time-givers. "When light hits your retina, the signals travel through the brain, it goes to the hypothalamus," which controls melatonin secretion, Stevens says. Melatonin is what makes you feel sleepy, and secretion doesn't start until daylight starts to dim at the end of the day.

Conversely, exposing yourself to daylight early in the day can be a great way to help sync your circadian clock to the new schedule. "In order to let my body adjust more quickly, I typically spend a lot of time outside in the full sunlight if I can (in warmer months) or in the sunlight inside (in colder months) to remind my body of the new surroundings and to let the melatonin flow," writes Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz.

Stevens says taking a melatonin tablet before bed, coupled with daylight exposure, can also be a great way to adapt to a new time zone. And don't forget to shut off that blue light on your phone, too.

Perceiving without seeing: How light resets your internal clock

Naps, meals and exercise.

NPR's deputy international editor Nishant Dahiya and China correspondent John Ruwitch both swear by staying awake until 9 p.m. at your destination – no matter how cruddy you feel – and Stevens says that's a good rule of thumb.

In answer to my anxious plea "Are naps allowed?!" Stevens says they can be beneficial. "Naps can give you the little perk of energy that you need to then last an extra couple of hours." The catch? He recommends capping your snooze at 20 minutes.

Dahiya also relies on "more than three espresso shots the next morning" to help power through sleeplessness. Stevens warns if you do make use of caffeine, to make sure you drink it at least 6 hours before you plan to hit the hay.

Rather than chemical help, Stevens recommends tapping into other zeitgebers – including food intake, exercise, and temperature changes to adjust to a different time zone. "Every cell in our body also seems to follow a circadian pattern," he says. So for example "If you exercise at a particular time of day, and then you shift when you exercise," in your new time zone that can be a circadian cue, he says. So can shifting your meal times.

"My favorite sleep aid is to go for a walk," Stevens says. "Even if it's just for an hour, even if it's at night, I find going for a walk, getting a bit of fresh air, that just sort of clears your head," he says.

Happy travels, and do let us know if any of these tips work for you. Write to us at [email protected] .

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What Is Jet Lag? Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, and Prevention

How to Treat Jet Lag

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If you’ve ever flown across several time zones — from the East Coast to the West Coast, for example, or from the United States to Europe — you’re probably familiar with jet lag. It’s the feeling of fatigue, fuzzy-headedness, and all-around sluggishness that can accompany some types of long-distance travel.

“Jet lag reflects the fact that there are lots of clocks inside our body that regulate a lot of functions, and they all want to be in rhythm,” says Michael Grandner, PhD , an associate professor of medicine and the director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “When there’s a mismatch between the time input from your environment and where your body’s clocks are set, that’s what causes jet lag.”

While jet lag is normal and no cause for concern — pretty much everyone will become jet-lagged if the time difference involved in a trip is large enough — it can be unpleasant. In rare cases, it may even be persistent or severe enough to warrant medical attention.

The good news is that there are proven ways to help your body prepare and adjust to a time-zone shift, thus minimizing the effects of jet lag.

Common Questions & Answers

Yes. Jet Lag Rooster is an online calculator that can help you figure out how to adjust your sleep and light-exposure schedules to overcome jet lag. It is recommended by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine — and it’s free.

What Is Jet Lag?

Let’s get back to those “clocks” inside your body.

“We have a central circadian clock in the brain, and more recently it was discovered that every cell in the body has its own clock,” says Helen Burgess, PhD , a professor of psychiatry and the codirector of the sleep and circadian research laboratory at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

These clocks regulate your body’s temperature, its metabolism, its production and release of hormones, and many other important bodily functions, she says. “For example, about three hours before you wake up, your circadian clock will [trigger changes to] start to raise your body temperature, raise your cortisol levels , and get you ready to start your day,” she says.

These clocks operate on a 24-hour light-dark cycle, and depend on natural sunlight and cues like your sleep and mealtimes to stay on track. When you jump abruptly from one time zone to another (and start eating, sleeping, and getting sun at times that don’t correspond to when your body’s clocks expect you to), this misalignment creates internal confusion.

The greater the time shift, the greater the misalignment and confusion. “Your clocks will adjust, but that takes time,” she says. “While that’s happening, your mood, sleep, digestive system, immune system — basically everything can feel a bit out of whack.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes jet lag as “a mismatch between a person’s normal daily rhythms and a new time zone.”

An  article in the New England Journal of Medicine defined it as “a recognized sleep disorder that results from crossing time zones too rapidly for the circadian clock to keep pace.”

Furthermore, the most recent edition of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3) (the American Academy of Sleep Medicine ’s manual of sleep disorders) considers jet lag a subtype of circadian rhythm disorder, which puts it in the same family as shift work disorders.

While some other circadian rhythm disorders are similar to jet lag in that they’re related to circadian misalignment, they are distinct and separate sleep issues. One example is so-called social jet lag. “This is when your sleep-wake schedule shifts by more than two hours, like on the weekend,” Dr. Burgess says. “Like jet lag, this can create a mismatch between your environment and your internal clocks.”

Signs and Symptoms of Jet Lag

According to the ICSD-3, jet lag can cause many symptoms. “Many systems in the body are tied into these circadian clocks, which is why so many systems can be affected,” Dr. Grandner says.

Sleep disturbances — such as problems falling asleep or staying asleep throughout the night — are the most common and obvious symptom, according to jet lag research in the journal Chest .

Some other symptoms of jet lag include:

• Daytime sleepiness
• Poor or depressed mood
• Poor physical performance
• Confusion or cognitive impairment
• Gut discomfort or other GI disturbances

Your immune system may also take a hit, which may increase the odds that you catch a cold or other illness. “This is one reason why a lot of people get sick when they travel,” Grandner says.

Causes and Risk Factors of Jet Lag

These are pretty simple and straightforward. “The International Classification of Sleep Disorders says you may have jet lag if you cross two or more time zones,” Burgess says.

She says that eastward travel tends to cause a more trouble than westward travel. That’s because the circadian clock in the brain, when not regulated by light exposure, naturally tends to lengthen each day. “So most of us have this in-built tendency to drift a little bit later each day,” she says.

Since westward travel extends the length of your travel day, rather than shortening it, this better aligns with your clock’s natural inclination.

Grandner points out that other types of travel, apart from jet airplane travel, could lead to jet lag. For example, if you traversed two or more time zones by car or train in a short amount of time.

If you don’t take steps to adjust to your new time zone, that can worsen or prolong jet lag. Don't take naps all day, for example, or sleep a lot later than you normally would, he says.

As soon as possible, you want to try to adjust your habits to your new time zone, he says. (More on ways to manage jet lag below.)

When Jet Lag Is a Disorder

The ICSD-3 lists the following three criteria. If you have all three, you can be diagnosed as having jet lag disorder:

• You experience insomnia or daytime sleepiness following travel across at least two time zones.
• You experience problems thinking or concentrating, malaise, or physical symptoms such as GI discomfort within one to two days after travel.
• Your sleep disturbance is not better explained by another current sleep disorder, medical or neurologic disorder, mental disorder, medication use, or substance use disorder.

If you’re reading that list and thinking, “Well, I usually have these symptoms after long trips,” that’s nothing to worry about. “Pretty much anyone who feels jet lag could be diagnosed based on the criteria, but this isn’t a chronic condition,” Grandner says. “It’s not like you can have chronic jet lag that lasts for months or years.”

He says most people who experience jet lag, including those who meet all the criteria for a disorder, don’t need treatment and will get better on their own after a few days or, at the very most, two weeks.

When should you see a doctor? “If more than a few days have passed and it’s still significantly interfering with your health and your ability to function, then you could see someone,” he says.

Duration of Jet Lag: How Long It Lasts

How long jet lag lasts depends on the time difference between your point of departure and your destination. The greater the time difference, the longer it tends to take your body to adjust.

Researchers have found that, on average, it takes people about one day to adjust for each 1 to 1.5 hours of time change. So if you fly from the East Coast to the West Coast, which is a three-hour time difference, you should be over your jet lag in two to three days.

“That one-hour-per-day is a rough rule,” Burgess says. And remember, eastward travel eastward tends to create a little more jet lag than traveling west, she says.

Treatment and Medication Options for Jet Lag

There are a number of ways to treat jet lag, apart from simply waiting it out. While drug options are available, experts say behavioral adjustments are typically the best remedy.

Lifestyle and Behavioral Changes That Can Help With Jet Lag

First of all, you’ll want to adapt your old routines to your new time zone. “As soon as you get on the plane, get in the mindset that you’re on your destination’s time zone,” Grandner says. “Change your watch right away and use the destination time to plan when you’re eating, when you’re sleeping, and when you’re working.”

In other words, act like you’re already fully acclimated to that new time zone and you’re back on your typical schedule. If you normally go to bed at 11 and get up at 7, and you normally eat meals at specific times of the day, follow that schedule in your new time zone.

It won’t be easy at first — you likely won’t be tired or hungry at the right times — but it will help push your internal clocks in the right direction, he says.

If you want to take a more proactive approach, experts recommend using bright light exposure to help reset your body’s clocks. “The best way to fix this is properly timed light exposure, which can accelerate the resynchronization,” says Jamie Zeitzer, PhD , a professor and the codirector of the center for sleep and circadian sciences at Stanford University in California.

According to research , if you’ve traveled west, you’ll want plenty of bright-light exposure (such as natural outdoor light or very bright indoor light) later in the day. You’ll also want to avoid these in the early morning hours (such as earlier than the sun is naturally out). That’s because your body’s internal clocks think it’s later than it really is, and you’re trying to drag it earlier.

If you’ve traveled east, you’ll want to do the opposite: Get plenty of morning bright-light exposure and avoid it later in the day. (Wearing dark sunglasses outdoors, and “blue blockers” indoors, can help you avoid light at the wrong times of day.)

The ideal timing for light exposure or avoidance is tricky, Burgess says. It depends on the size of the time difference and your usual sleep-wake schedule. But the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends an online calculator called Jet Lag Rooster . Put in your travel details and the tool will tell you the ideal times to seek and avoid light.

Finally, Grandner says, “Try not to nap for more than 20 minutes, especially if your nap time corresponds with when you’d go to bed in your original time zone.”

Medication Options

Melatonin supplements can in some cases encourage your clocks to adjust more quickly. But Zeitzer says using light exposure to reset your clocks is “around 10-fold more potent.”

The Jet Lag Rooster calculator has a “use melatonin” option that can be useful. But Grandner offers a general rule of thumb: “Take a small dose, 0.5 to 3 mg, two to four hours before bed.”

Recent research does suggest that many Americans misuse melatonin ; so if you choose to use it, avoid common mistakes like taking too much.

Prescription sleep aids — such as hypnotics like zolpidem (Ambien) — can help you get to sleep at the appropriate time at your destination. But research has also found that these drugs sometimes interfere with jet lag adjustment; and they come with risk of serious side effects and complications, like addiction. Grandner says most people don’t need these drugs to manage jet lag.

How to Prevent Jet Lag

“Pre-adapting for jet travel can help,” Zeitzer says. “This entails shifting your schedule part way to the new time zone before leaving.”

Research in the journal Sleep has shown this can significantly cut down the length of your jet lag.

To do this, you’ll need to adjust your sleep and light-exposure schedules to align more closely with your destination time zone gradually a few days before departing. Again, online calculators like Jet Lag Rooster can suggest the best sleep and light-exposure schedule based on your travel details.

Related Conditions

There’s not much evidence linking jet lag to prolonged sleep disorders. But experts say that, in very rare cases, jet lag can act as a catalyst for more persistent sleep issues.

“I have a patient who went to Europe, and the jet lag sort of interacted with his anxiety, where once he started sleeping poorly, he just couldn’t get back on track,” Grandner says. “Because of his anxiety about sleep, which started with jet lag, he developed insomnia.”

Cleveland Clinic recommends reaching out to your doctor if you experience symptoms that get worse rather than better after more than a week — or if you have persistent symptoms not likely to be related to jet lag, but that could be sign of another illness, like: fever, nausea, or other flu symptoms .

Resources We Trust

• Mayo Clinic:  Jet Lag Disorder
• Cleveland Clinic:  Jet Lag
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Travelers' Health – Jet Lag
• Harvard Health Publishing:  Jet Lag
• National Library of Medicine: Chronic Jet Lag Reduces Motivation and Affects Other Mood-Related Behaviors in Male Mice

Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy . We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.

• Jet Lag. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . October 6, 2022. 
• Sack RL. Clinical Practice: Jet Lag. New England Journal of Medicine . February 2010.
• Weingarten JA, Collop NA. Air Travel: Effects of Sleep Deprivation and Jet Lag.  Chest . 2013.
• Burgess H. Using Bright Light and Melatonin to Reduce Jet Lag. Behavioral Treatments for Sleep Disorders . 2011.
• Jet Lag Rooster. American Academy of Sleep Medicine . March 25, 2021.
• Jet Lag Rooster by Sleepopolis. Sleepopolis.com . May 4, 2023.
• Eastman CI, Gazda CJ, Burgess HJ, Crowley SJ, Fogg LF. Advancing Circadian Rhythms Before Eastward Flight: A Strategy to Prevent or Reduce Jet Lag.  Sleep . 2005.
• Jet Lag. Cleveland Clinic . June 13, 2021.

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What Is Jet Lag? Plus How to Beat It

• Why It Happens
• Is It Worse Going East or West?

Leren Lu / Getty Images

Maintaining a consistent sleep routine is essential to your overall health and wellbeing, but traveling long distances can wreak havoc on your sleep schedule. Jet lag is a temporary sleep disorder that occurs when you cross time zones too rapidly for your internal body clock to keep up. When this happens, you can experience a variety of symptoms including sleepiness, insomnia, irritability, inability to concentrate, GI upset, and more. Sleep medicine specialists consider jet lag a circadian rhythm disorder.

If you are a frequent traveler, being well-informed about jet lag—including the symptoms, possible treatments, and tips for prevention—can make your long-distance travel less disruptive and demanding on your body.

Here is what you need to know about jet lag so that you can protect your sleep and your health—even when you travel.

Why Jet Lag Happens

When you arrive in a new time zone, your circadian rhythms are still acclimated to the time of day from where you departed. When this happens, you can experience symptoms of jet lag as your body adjusts.

Health experts consider jet lag a temporary sleep problem that primarily occurs when you travel across more than three time zones. But it can impact anyone who travels across more than one time zone.

Additionally, some conditions of travel make jet lag more prone to happen, such as: being sleep deprived, sitting for long periods in an uncomfortable position, drinking excessive amounts of caffeine or alcohol, fluctuating cabin air pressure, and inhaling poor air quality.

Is Jet Lag Worse Going East or West?

The speed at which your circadian rhythms adapt to the new time zone depends on the number of time zones you crossed and the direction of your travel. Typically, traveling east makes jet lag worse. Some experts speculate that this is because eastward travel is in direct opposition to your internal clock, while flying west exposes you to longer periods of daylight. This daylight is what could make westward travel easier to adjust to—especially because your internal body clock is so closely tied to your exposure to light (and darkness).

Researchers in a University of Maryland study used a mathematical model to show how long it would take you to recover from jet lag based on the direction you were flying. What they found is that if you travelled across nine time zones, it would take you eight days to recover if you fly west. But, if you fly east, it may take as many as 13 days to recover.

Symptoms of Jet Lag

Symptoms of jet lag not only vary from person to person, but the same person can experience different symptoms after each flight. This makes it difficult for healthcare providers to determine what is related to jet lag and what could be caused by something else.

That said, most people with jet lag typically experience more than one of the following symptoms when they fly across three or more time zones:

• Gastrointestinal issues
• Decreased appetite
• Inability to concentrate
• Irritability
• Poor performance on physical or mental tasks
• Difficulty going to sleep (after eastward flights)
• Early awakening (after westward flights)
• Fractionated sleep

It is also important to note that crossing multiple time zones can affect the timing of your regular medication. If you are taking a medication that requires you to take multiple doses a day, you may want to talk to a healthcare provider for strategies to keep you on your dosing schedule.

How to Treat and Cope With Jet Lag

Because jet lag is a temporary condition, there are no long-term treatments for it. That said, here are some ways you can cope with jet lag.

Consider Supplements and Medications

If you experience jet lag on a consistent basis due to extensive travel, talk to a healthcare provider about what types of medications and supplements could be helpful for you.

For instance, both the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health indicate that melatonin can be used to reduce symptoms of jet lag. But experts caution that melatonin might not be safe when combined with some other medications, so it is important to talk to your healthcare provider first.

Another option is Rozerem (ramelteon), an FDA-approved treatment for insomnia . Ramelteon is in a class of medications called melatonin receptor agonists. It works similarly to melatonin, a natural substance in the brain that is needed for sleep.

Research shows taking 1 milligrams (mg) of ramelteon just before bed can help you fall asleep, particularly after traveling east. Sometimes hypontics like Restoril (temazepam), Zolpimist (zolpidem), and Imovane (zopiclone) are prescribed, but they do not help you reset circadian rhythms nor will the improve your symptoms.

Use Light to Adjust

One of the reasons jet lag may happen is because your exposure to light changes when you travel through different time zones. Depending on the direction of your travel, you are either exposed to more light or less light, and this can interrupt your internal clock.

Some scientists have proposed using light exposure either from the sun or a light box to motivate your body to adjust to the local time zone. However, the evidence on using light exposure to treat jet lag is mixed.

Some research shows that morning light exposure moves your internal clock to an earlier time while evening light exposure moves it to a later time.

Therefore, it is recommended to seek bright light exposure in the evening after traveling west and in the morning after traveling east, specially when you've crossed eight or more time zones. Avoiding exposure to bright light may be helpful when crossing more than eight or more time zones so that light which was previously experienced as “morning” is now experienced as “evening."

Consider Exercising

Exercise may be the last thing on your mind after a long flight, but researchers believe that exercising at certain times of the day can alter your circadian rhythms for the better. Physical activity can help you shake off some travel fatigue, and alleviate daytime sleepiness once you have arrived at your destination.

Try going for a walk or plan an activity. Unless it is bedtime at your new location, try not to collapse into bed right away. Instead, try to stay awake until bedtime.

How to Prevent Jet Lag

One way to prevent jet lag is to target things that contribute or make it worse. For instance, the timing of your meals, exercise, and sleep prior to your trip can all impact the severity of your jet lag once you arrive at your destination.

Here are some science-backed ways to prevent jet lag:

• Change your sleep schedule before you leave: A few days before you leave on your trip, you may want to move your bedtime little by little closer to the schedule of your destination. Even if you are only able to make a partial switch, it can help. For example, before traveling east, go to bed a half-hour earlier than usual for several nights. If you are traveling west, stay up a half-hour later on several consecutive nights.
• Adopt the new bedtime immediately: Once you arrive, switch your bedtime to the new time zone as soon as you arrive. And, though you may be tempted to take a nap, do not go to bed until it's bedtime in your new time zone.
• Stay hydrated while traveling: While dehydration is common when traveling, allowing yourself to get dehydrated could worsen your symptoms of jet lag. Drink plenty of liquids before, during, and after your flight. But, try to avoid caffeine and alcohol. Both of these selections can disturb your sleep.
• Consider the size and the timing of your meals: When people get jet lagged, they can sometimes experience gastrointestinal issues. For this reason, it might be helpful to eat smaller meals before and during the flight to minimize GI symptoms. It also may be helpful to delay your meals. In fact, researchers found that delaying a meal by five hours changes the phase relationship of your circadian rhythms, which could help prevent or minimize symptoms of jet lag.
• Utilize a mobile application: There are a number of apps that are designed to provide tailored advice on how to manage your jet lag symptoms. For instance,  Timeshifter  provides advice on when to use caffeine, light, melatonin, and sleep to help you adjust.

A Quick Review

Jet lag is a temporary sleep disorder that occurs when you travel across multiple time zones, causing your circadian rhythms to lose sync with your local time. When this happens, you can experience a variety of symptoms including sleepiness, insomnia, irritability, inability to concentrate, GI upset, and more.

While there is not a lot you can do to prevent jet lag from happening, you can take steps like adjusting your sleep schedule and staying hydrated to minimize or even prevent severe symptoms. If you do have jet lag, you may want to adapt to the local time zone as quickly as you can and adopt their bedtime as soon as you arrive.

In most cases, jet lag will go away on its own, but if your symptoms persist or are troublesome, you should see a healthcare provider.

Frequently Asked Questions

Jet lag symptoms usually last one day for each time zone your crossed, but it can take longer for your body to realign the circadian clock. If you travel across a single time zone and still feel fatigued, you could be experiencing travel fatigue instead of jet lag, which can take about one to two days to resolve.

Most people will adjust to a new time zone and recover from jet lag without any medical interventions. But, if you are concerned about your symptoms or you are worried that your body is not adjusting like it should, reach out to a healthcare provider. They can evaluate you and offer recommendations for treatment.

Sack RL. Jet lag .  N Engl J Med . 2010;362(5):440-447. doi:10.1056/NEJMcp0909838

Sateia MJ. International classification of sleep disorders-third edition .  Chest . 2014;146(5):1387-1394. doi:10.1378/chest.14-0970

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jet lag .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jet lag: CDC Yellow Book 2024 .

Herxheimer A. Jet lag .  BMJ Clin Evid . 2014;2014:2303. PMID:24780537

Jasper SC, Leenders MAAM, O'Shannassy T.  Travel across time zones and the implications for human performance post pandemic: Insights from elite sport .  Front Public Health . 2022;10:998484. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.998484

Lu Z, Klein-Cardeña K, Lee S, Antonsen TM, Girvan M, Ott E. Resynchronization of circadian oscillators and the east-west asymmetry of jet-lag .  Chaos . 2016;26(9):094811. doi:10.1063/1.4954275

Ambesh P, Shetty V, Ambesh S, Gupta SS, Kamholz S, Wolf L. Jet lag: Heuristics and therapeutics .  J Family Med Prim Care . 2018;7(3):507-510. doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_220_17

Youngstedt SD, Elliott JA, Kripke DF. Human circadian phase–response curves for exercise .  J Physiol . 2019;597(8):2253-2268. doi:10.1113/JP276943

Harvard Medical School. Ways to minimize jet lag .

Harvard Medical School. Don't let jet lag affect your sleep .

Wehrens SMT, Christou S, Isherwood C, et al. Meal timing regulates the human circadian system .  Current Biology . 2017;27(12):1768-1775.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2017.04.059

Lee A, Galvez JC. Jet lag in athletes .  Sports Health . 2012;4(3):211-216. doi:10.1177/1941738112442340

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Peer reviewed by Dr Colin Tidy, MRCGP Last updated by Dr Hayley Willacy, FRCGP Last updated 19 Jul 2023

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In this series: Health advice for travel abroad Travelling to remote locations Ears and flying Motion sickness Altitude sickness

Jet lag occurs after travelling rapidly across several time zones, because the body's internal clock has not adjusted to the required sleep-wake cycle in the new time zone.

Jet lag causes physical and psychological symptoms, the severity of which increases with the number of time zones crossed and direction of travel. Eastward travel, when hours are 'gained' is associated with worse jet lag than westward travel, when hours are 'lost.'

In this article :

What causes jet lag, what are the symptoms of jet lag, when to see a doctor about jet lag, who gets jet lag, do some people get worse jet lag than others, how long does jet lag last, why does travelling east cause worse jet lag than travelling west, how can i prevent jet lag, how do i get over jet lag when i arrive, do commercial light devices help with jet lag, do jet lag calculators help with jet lag, do coloured spectacles help with jet lag, do sleeping tablets help with jet lag, what is the circadian rhythm, does taking melatonin help with jet lag, how do i prevent jet lag in my baby or toddler, how do i treat jet lag in my baby or toddler.

Continue reading below

Jet lag is a group of symptoms caused by disruption to the natural rhythms of the body, called circadian rhythm, by moving quickly across the world's time zones. It results from a temporary mismatch between the body's internal clock and the destination sleep/wake schedule.

This can either make it hard to fall asleep, or make you sleepy when you're trying to stay awake. It can also cause dizziness , indigestion , nausea , constipation , altered appetite and mild anxiety .

Before the advent of fast air travel, long journeys were slow enough for us to adjust gradually to different time zones as we travelled. Jet lag occurs when we travel so fast that we 'gain' or 'lose' extra hours more quickly than our body's capacity to adjust allows.

You don't need to travel to get jet lag. Shift work or a series of late nights can have the same effect. This also puts your melatonin and cortisol clocks out of synch with the daylight hours that you need to work to.

If you are travelling over only one or two, or possibly three, time zones, jet lag is not usually a problem. It usually affects people travelling across more than three time zones. So if the time at your destination is more than three hours different to that at the start of your journey, you are likely to experience jet lag. The more the time difference, the greater the problem jet lag is likely to be.

Jet lag only affects people travelling quickly. If you are travelling more slowly, by boat or car, your body clock will be able to adjust gradually.

The most common symptoms of jet lag are related to sleep. You may have difficulty getting to sleep at bedtime and struggle to wake up in the morning, or you may be tired long before bedtime and wake up while it is still night and too early to get up.

The effect of this difficulty with sleeping is feeling tired and not being able to function as well as usual. Common symptoms include:

Tiredness, which can be severe.

Sleepiness.

Disturbed and wakeful nights.

Feeling light-headed or 'spaced out.'

Feeling jittery, anxious or shaky.

Having a fine tremor.

Poor concentration and memory.

Being less co-ordinated than usual.

Irritability.

Low mood and weepiness.

Homesickness.

Not wanting to join in normal activities.

Poorer performance in sports than usual (particularly a problem for athletes).

Constipation .

Poor appetite.

Nausea and indigestion.

Other aspects of travel, such as cabin pressure, can also have an effect on your digestion. Changes in cabin pressure can cause both lack of fluid in the body (dehydration) and bloating, which may contribute to your symptoms.

Complications

Some of the symptoms of jet lag (such as poor concentration, or feeling 'spaced out') may cause problems performing complex (potentially dangerous) tasks, such as driving or operating machinery. You should not drive if you feel you are not functioning normally.

If you are not recovering from jet lag and your symptoms are causing problems (such as sleep disturbance, disrupted appetite or altered mood - anxiety and depression), you should see your doctor. They can assess your symptoms and suggest how to manage them.

Risk factors

People who travel frequently, particularly airline pilots and crew, are most likely to have problems with jet lag. Most people who fly very long distances will be affected, particularly if they fly coach class and can't easily manage to sleep on the flight even when they are sleepy.

Jet lag can be a problem for athletes competing in different parts of the world, as it is likely to affect physical performance. It is also a concern for business travellers as it may cloud their thinking for several days.

People vary in their ability to adjust to travel across time zones. Whilst people will take on average one day to correct for each hour, once they have crossed more than three time zones, some people take longer than this.

There is a small subgroup of people whose adjustment is very slow to begin, so that their circadian clock does not initially shift. You may know if you are one of these people, as you may experience worse jet lag than others. If this is the case then consider starting the jet lag preparations detailed here 4-5 days prior to travel, rather than only 2-3 days beforehand.

The circadian 'clock' is capable of adjusting by 1-2 hours each day without too much difficulty, so that we can accommodate variety in bedtime and getting up times - but adjusting to more than three hours or more can take time - roughly a day for each hour's adjustment. Three hours is borderline - some people will notice it, others will not.

The principle behind jet lag is that we need a similar amount of quality sleep, in one stretch. It's not easy to make ourselves sleep for extra hours when we travel, so we mainly need to move the sleep time, increasing or reducing our awake time.

Travelling to the west is easier as the brain finds it easier to move its clock back (by delaying release of melatonin and cortisol and sleeping later), than to move it forward (releasing it earlier).

Travelling to the east is harder, because you have to try to go to sleep when you are not tired, and without your body having produced the melatonin that usually helps this happen.

It is possible to avoid jet lag but it needs commitment and advance planning. The main key to these strategies is getting enough quality sleep in the few days before your trip, whilst trying to move your sleep period forwards or backwards.

If you try these strategies for 2-3 days before travel (4-5 days if you are a slow adjuster) then you can 'advance adjust' your circadian rhythm and reduce or even eliminate jet lag.

How do I reduce jet lag when travelling west?

If you are travelling west then you will gain time, so the principle of preventing jet lag is to prepare in advance by convincing your body it is earlier than it is, whilst continuing to get the right amount of quality sleep.

You won't be able to sleep for longer than usual, so you need to move your sleep period to later.

Try to stay in bright light in the evening, so that you delay release of melatonin until the new bedtime, and avoid bright lights in the morning, so your brain will think the sun hasn't risen yet.

Exercising at night will increase your body temperature, which will also shift your clock backwards. Staying up and sleeping in late will help even more.

How do I reduce jet lag when travelling east?

If you are travelling east, then you will lose time, so the principle of preventing jet lag is to convince your body it is later than it is, whilst continuing to get enough quality sleep.

You won't be able to sleep for longer than usual, and your challenge is to move your sleep period backwards and convince your body it is later than it really is. Long-haul flights east from the UK usually dim the lights early to assist you with this.

Avoid light as much as possible in the evening.

Go to sleep early, and get plenty of bright light when you wake up.

It also helps to exercise soon after rising, to increase your body temperature.

It is possible that taking melatonin may help (see below).

What should I do to ward off jet lag once I reach my destination?

Once you get to your destination use light to assist your body's adjustment to the new time zone - plenty of light (and exercise) in the morning and during the day, and darkness at night.

Avoid power napping when you're trying to adjust your clock.

Don't think about the old time zone at all - reset your watch and eat, stay well-hydrated, exercise and sleep in the new zone.

Avoid alcohol until you feel you have fully adjusted.

The most effective treatments for jet lag rely on shifting the circadian clock to the new time zone as fast as possible.

If you don't have time to prepare and experience jet lag, it will gradually subside on its own after a few days, as your body clock adapts to the new time zone. There are a number of strategies to help you get over it more quickly:

Ensure good-quality sleep in the darkness

After arrival at your destination, try to change your schedule to the new time zone as quickly as possible.

Avoid going to sleep until it is a reasonable bedtime for the new time zone. Then turn all the lights out, and use ear plugs if others have not settled to sleep.

Set alarms to stop you oversleeping in the morning. When you get up, turn the lights on.

Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the six hours before you plan to sleep as they may interfere with your sleep cycle.

Prior to going to bed, try to relax. Avoid large meals, heavy exercise and exciting books or films before sleeping.

Shortwave or 'blue' light is thought to be most important in stopping melatonin being released. Therefore, glasses which block out blue light may help you release melatonin earlier than usual. It may therefore be helpful to wear them for a couple of hours before bed, although more research is needed. This would only be helpful if you are trying to bring forward the time you go to sleep - for example, after travelling east.

Ensure wakefulness when it's daylight

Warm up in the morning with light exercise and a hot shower.

If you normally exercise at night, consider switching your routine and exercising in the morning.

Caffeine-containing drinks such as coffee may help keep you awake until it is a reasonable time to go to sleep.

Expose yourself to outside natural light as much as possible. This will help your internal clock adjust.

If you are only in the new time zone for two to three days it may be easier to stay on your original timings. Eat and go to sleep at times that would be normal for you, even if they aren't the right times for the place you are now in. This may not be practical for everybody, as it depends on what you want or need to do while you are away.

Some people use light boxes or commercial light devices to increase their light exposure. This may be helpful.

Various commercial light boxes and light devices are marketed for jet lag - many of them are also marketed for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) .

Large boxes are easier to sit in front of, and usually more tolerable.

Small light boxes and worn devices are more portable.

Light boxes that can produce blue light, and which use LEDs, may be more effective because the circadian system is most sensitive to blue light.

Several online calculators, apps and devices are available to tell the traveller how and when to use the light, when to seek darkness and to seek normal daylight in the days after travelling.

Jet lag calculators are online tools that give you an 'adjustment programme' to try to prepare for international travel. The idea is that you put your travel details into the calculator and it tells you how to adjust your sleeping patterns prior to, and during, travel.

Many of them are based around the use of light devices, some of which are marketed by the makers of the app or calculator.

Some calculators may be based on expecting a faster adjustment than the one hour per day recovery which most researchers agree is typical for most of us. This means that the timetables offered over several days are not always helpful - they may, in other words, give you too much light too soon. Using the light devices before travel, to prepare for the new time zone, is thought to help reduce this problem.

The idea of wearing coloured specs on the plane relates to the fact that melatonin production is reduced by the presence of blue light. Coloured specs - they usually look red - filter out the blue light. The idea is that these are worn for a couple of hours before you want to sleep, particularly when travelling east, to try to stimulate your natural melatonin production in order to start to shift your circadian rhythm.

There are currently no treatments specifically licensed for jet lag. This is partly because adjusting the sleep-wake cycle is complicated, and affected by travel itself.

We all adjust differently, and the time at which medicines need to be taken in order to make things better rather than worse, differs between individuals and journeys.

Sleeping tablets are often considered by those trying to get back into a sleeping pattern. However, most doctors will advise against this. Sleeping tablets do not treat jet lag; they only mask it because they don't reset your circadian rhythm, they just sedate you.

They are highly addictive and can affect your ability to fall asleep by yourself even after only a couple of days of use. You also may be more irritable, and perform less well, when you wake.

We all have an internal clock, managing our body through day and night. Many of the systems in our bodies are affected by it, including appetite and energy levels, and sleepiness. The normal cycle, of sleeping at night and being alert and active in daytime, is called the circadian rhythm.

All living beings, even plants, have an internal clock. The rhythm is a response to the cycle of daylight and darkness.

There are two main components to our internal clock. These are melatonin (produced by a gland in our brain called the pineal gland) and cortisol, (produced by the adrenal gland, on top of the kidney).

Both affect arousal (alertness), sleepiness, mood, energy level, and body temperature, and both are mainly regulated by an area of the brain called the hypothalamus, a kind of central control zone located at the base of the brain, behind your eyes.

What is melatonin?

Melatonin is one of the main hormones involved in helping you sleep. Melatonin production occurs mainly when it is dark. Bright artificial light, blue light and natural light, can reduce melatonin levels.

Higher melatonin levels are associated with better sleep quality, reduction in depression, and better cognitive performance (this means performance in tasks like attention, reaction time, visual memory and mental maths).

The brain releases melatonin an hour or two before you normally sleep. At the same time body temperature begins to fall, reaching its lowest temperature in the early hours of the morning.

What is cortisol?

An hour or two before expected waking, your body releases cortisol, and then adrenaline (epinephrine). These hormones increase arousal and wakefulness. If levels are high they can make you anxious or uneasy.

Once you have crossed more than three time zones it typically takes the cortisol production pattern one full day to adjust for every time zone crossed. It takes four days to adjust to a four-hour change (even though a two-hour or even a three-hour change can usually be managed without jet lag).

Melatonin is often suggested and discussed as a remedy for jet lag. It is not a licensed treatment, although it is a tablet form of the natural melatonin hormone which your brain produces. You might imagine, from reading this leaflet, that melatonin would help jet lag. However, the truth is more complicated.

A wide body of research suggests that melatonin pills do effectively shift the circadian clock and can be a useful tool for reducing jet lag, particularly when travelling east.

Melatonin is available from health food shops as a dietary supplement.

However, it is also not yet known what dose should be used, or exactly when melatonin should be taken.

Some evidence suggests that melatonin can prevent jet lag if taken as part of the advance preparation for jet lag detailed above.

One possible downside of taking melatonin is that adjusting to a new time zone means adjusting your OWN circadian clock, which means producing your OWN melatonin. Until you do that you won't have adjusted, so even though taking large doses of melatonin can make you sleepy, it's not adjusting your body, and it may actually interfere with your body's own efforts to adjust, simply delaying the jet lag without preventing it.

At the best of times, it can be difficult to get your baby or toddler to sleep at the right time, and when you are travelling and everything is strange, worrying, tense or exciting then trying to get them to sleep when you want them to can be an impossible task.

Should I sedate my baby or toddler to avoid jet lag?

Some people try to sedate their children with antihistamine-type sedatives. Unfortunately, this is not a great solution. Only a really high dose of a sedative will make a child sleep when they don't want to - a higher dose than you would want to give for travel.

Lower doses risk making them irritable and drowsy without being sleepy, potentially making them tired and fractious. Worse than this, once the medication wears off they tend to suffer from a 'rebound' agitation which may make them irritable, upset and shaky.

Do what your baby does

The preparations above for jet lag only work if you are free to do them. If you are working around a baby or toddler when you are travelling you will need to try to rest when they rest, and accept the need to be awake when they are awake.

You can help yourself by preparing, as much as you can, before you travel, using others to help you get the sleep you need to try to adjust in advance to the new time zone.

Helping your baby adjust to a new time zone

When you reach your destination and your child is wide awake, give them breakfast. Their jet lag is telling them it is time for breakfast and you won't be able to convince them otherwise.

Accept that you can't sleep and, if you are tired, just try to be as restful as possible. Read favourite books, give them a warm bath, try not to overstimulate them, but to relax them. Eventually they will need to sleep, but they may hold out longer than you thought possible.

After an interval of 2-3 hours, if they are calm, fed and happy, try a bedtime routine again - pyjamas, quiet and darkness may all signal to your baby or toddler than it's time to sleep. If they sleep then sleep yourself, and try to make sure nobody disturbs them until they've slept it off.

See also the separate leaflet called Travelling to Remote Locations for further advice on travelling with young children .

Dr Mary Lowth is an author or the original author of this leaflet.

Further reading and references

• Doane LD, Kremen WS, Eaves LJ, et al ; Associations between jet lag and cortisol diurnal rhythms after domestic travel. Health Psychol. 2010 Mar;29(2):117-23. doi: 10.1037/a0017865.
• Eastman CI, Burgess HJ ; How To Travel the World Without Jet lag. Sleep Med Clin. 2009 Jun 1;4(2):241-255. doi: 10.1016/j.jsmc.2009.02.006.
• Sleep disorders - shift work and jet lag ; NICE CKS, November 2019 (UK access only)
• Janse van Rensburg DC, Jansen van Rensburg A, Fowler PM, et al ; Managing Travel Fatigue and Jet Lag in Athletes: A Review and Consensus Statement. Sports Med. 2021 Oct;51(10):2029-2050. doi: 10.1007/s40279-021-01502-0. Epub 2021 Jul 14.

Article History

The information on this page is written and peer reviewed by qualified clinicians.

Next review due: 17 Jul 2028

19 jul 2023 | latest version.

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Home News Jet Lag: How to Combat the Travel Condition That Disrupts Circadian Rhythm back to News

Jet Lag: How to Combat the Travel Condition That Disrupts Circadian Rhythm

Jet setters know the side effects that can come with travel. cu sleep specialist jessica camacho, md, explains jet lag and what to do to alleviate symptoms..

minute read

We’ve all had the familiar experience of feeling groggy, irritable, and maybe even ill, when traveling across multiple time zones. While jet lag can be common for any traveler, sleep experts say it’s mostly temporary and can be alleviated through good sleep habits and some extra travel preparation.

Even traveling just a few time zones can impact circadian rhythm, a 24-hour sleep-wake pattern internally programmed in the body and brain that has evolved over time to ensure that humans are optimally adapted to the external environment, mainly, the light and dark patterns that come from the Earth's rotation.

“This pattern is programmed into our genes and those genes have been found in virtually all tissues of the body,” says sleep specialist Jessica Camacho , MD, assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine . “At this point in science, we know that circadian rhythm not only regulates sleep and wake, but it also serves an important role in regulating many other vital body functions throughout the body, including metabolism, hormone release, and immune function.”

The effects of jet lag

Jet lag is a group of symptoms that occur after a person travels rapidly across multiple time zones — particularly eastward —resulting in a mismatch between the body's internal clock and the new time zone.

Travelers may experience trouble falling asleep, fragmented sleep, poor quality sleep, or difficulty staying asleep through the night. Symptoms of jet lag also include impaired concentration, focus, and alertness.

“We also know that jet lag can dampen reflexes and impair your decision-making skills,” Camacho says. “You may even feel physically ill, such as an upset stomach.”

The good news is that these symptoms fade over a few days.

“For the average person, jetlag will set in in one or two days after you arrive at your destination and how long it lasts and how severe the symptoms are will depend on how many time zones you travel,” Camacho says.

Similar symptoms can arise for shift workers who take on schedules opposite of the body’s circadian rhythm. Prolonged sleep disruption may cause more intense symptoms and affect health further, which may require expert help to manage.

Preparing for takeoff (and bedtime)

Alleviating jet lag symptoms starts with prevention.

“You want to make sure that you're keeping healthy habits to begin with, especially regarding sleep. We refer to healthy sleep habits as sleep hygiene,” Camacho explains. “It's really about getting the optimal seven to nine hours of sleep per night, keeping a consistent bedtime and wake time, and avoiding electronic screens close to bedtime. Moderating your caffeine and alcohol use, getting good exercise, and staying hydrated can also impact your sleep hygiene.”

That foundation can go a long way, but taking preventative measures before a trip may help too.

“Shifting your natural sleep-wake cycle a little bit ahead of travel can make it easier after arriving at your destination,” Camacho says. “For eastward travel, you can do this by adjusting your bedtime about one hour earlier each day for the three days before the trip. Focusing on bright light exposure first thing in the morning on those days can also help adjust the sleep cycle.”

There’s also some evidence, she says, that taking an over-the-counter melatonin supplement those few days before travel can help. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone that’s released when circadian rhythms start to set in later in the day and helps to ready the body for rest.

“A nice low dose of melatonin at bedtime for those three days before the trip has been shown to be helpful for alleviating jetlag symptoms,” Camacho says. “We're talking 0.5 to 5 milligrams, something pretty small. Bigger doses may actually induce feelings of grogginess. When you get to your destination, you may want to continue these small doses at bedtime to help adjust.”

Frequent flyers may notice more jet lag symptoms, sometimes even impacting their daily lives and work. In these cases, Camacho says it’s recommended to consult a doctor to determine the best course of action.

“Any individual who is traveling a lot, or has experienced pretty significant jetlag that persists, can begin to develop a secondary sleep disorder, such as chronic insomnia,” she says. “If the symptoms persist, and they aren't temporary, and they’re negatively impacting you, it could be a sign that there could be something else going on.”

A medical evaluation may be necessary so that sleep issues don’t further impact health.

“Sleep makes up one-third of our lives, yet it’s often overlooked as a big component of health, and it’s undervalued in terms of what it can do for so many bodily systems,” Camacho says. “By practicing good sleep hygiene and being mindful about our routines, jet lag can be easy to manage.”

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Jet lag results from a mismatch between a person’s circadian (24-hour) rhythms and the time of day in the new time zone. When establishing risk of jet lag, first determine how many time zones a traveler will cross and what the discrepancy will be between time of day at home and at the destination at arrival. During the first few days after a flight to a new time zone, a person’s circadian rhythms are still anchored to the time of day at their initial departure location. Rhythms then adjust gradually to the new time zone.

A useful web-based tool for world time zone travel information is available. For travelers crossing ≤3 time zones, especially if they are on a long-haul flight, symptoms (e.g., tiredness) are likely due to fatigue rather than jet lag, and symptoms should abate 1–3 days post-flight.

Many people flying >3 time zones for a vacation accept the risk for jet lag as a transient and mild inconvenience, but people traveling on business or to compete in athletic events might desire advice on prophylactic measures and treatments. If a traveler spends ≤2 days in the new time zone, they might prefer to anchor their sleep–wake schedule to the time of day at home as much as possible. Consider recommending short-acting hypnotics or alertness-enhancing drugs (e.g., caffeine) for such travelers to minimize total burden of jet lag during short round trips.

Clinical Presentation

Jet lag symptoms can be difficult to define because of variation among people and because the same person can experience different symptoms after each flight. Jet-lagged travelers typically experience ≥1 of the following symptoms after flying across >3 time zones: gastrointestinal disturbances, decreased interest in food or enjoyment of meals; negative feelings (e.g., anxiety, depression, fatigue, headache, inability to concentrate, irritability); poor performance of physical and mental tasks during the new daytime; and classically, poor sleep, including (but not limited to) difficulty initiating sleep at the usual time of night (after eastward flights), early awakening (after westward flights), and fractionated sleep (after flights in either direction).

Symptoms are difficult to distinguish from the general fatigue resulting from international travel itself, as well as from other travel factors (e.g., hypoxia in the aircraft cabin). Validated multi-symptom measurement tools (e.g., Liverpool Jet Lag Index) can help distinguish between jet lag and fatigue. When travelers cross only 1–2 time zones, though, symptoms of and treatment for jet lag are not readily distinguishable from those for general travel fatigue.

In addition to jet lag symptoms, crossing multiple time zones can affect the timing of regular medication used for chronic conditions and illnesses. This can particularly affect patients taking medications with short half-lives that require >1 dose each day. Consider the destination and traveling time when evaluating travelers who take long-term medications, and recommend strategies to keep them on their dosing schedule.

Prevention & Treatment

Travelers use many approaches—before, during, and after flying—to reduce jet lag symptoms. In one survey, 460 long-haul travelers indicated that seat selection and booking a direct flight were primary strategies to reduce jet lag. Nearly all study participants used ≥1 behavioral strategy during their flight, including consuming or avoiding alcohol and caffeine (81%), altering food intake (68%), using light exposure (53%), periodic walking down the aisle of the plane (35%), and taking medication (15%), including melatonin (8%). Only 1 respondent used a jet lag application on a mobile device. Fewer people used all these strategies before take-off and after arrival.

After arrival, light and social contacts influence the timing of internal circadian rhythms. A traveler staying in the time zone for >2 days should quickly try to adjust to the local sleep–wake schedule as much as possible.

Diet & Physical Activity

Most dietary interventions or functional foods have not been proven to reduce jet lag symptoms in randomized controlled trials and real flight conditions (see Sec. 2, Ch. 14, Complementary & Integrative Health Approaches to Travel Wellness ). Most trials are in simulated flight conditions and have a high risk of bias, including studies looking at the effectiveness of  Centella asiatica , elderberry, echinacea, pinokinase, and diets containing various levels of fiber, fluids, or macronutrients. In one study, long-haul flight crew who adopted more regular mealtimes showed a small improvement in their general subjective rating of jet lag, but not the separate symptoms of alertness or jet lag, on their days off work.

Because gastrointestinal disturbance is a common jet lag symptom, travelers might better tolerate smaller meals than larger ones before and during the flight; this strategy has not been investigated in a formal trial, however. Travelers might find caffeine and physical activity can help ameliorate daytime sleepiness at the destination, but little evidence exists to indicate that these interventions reduce overall feelings of jet lag. Any purported treatments based on use of acupressure, aromatherapy, or homeopathy have no scientific basis.

Hypnotic Medications

Prescription medications (e.g., temazepam, zolpidem, zopiclone) can reduce sleep loss during and after travel but do not necessarily help resynchronize circadian rhythms or improve overall jet lag symptoms. If indicated, prescribe the lowest effective dose of a short- to medium-acting compound for the initial few days of travel, bearing in mind these drugs do have adverse effects. In 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about rare but serious adverse events (i.e., injuries caused by sleepwalking) occurring after patients took some sleep medications; adverse events were more commonly reported with eszopiclone, zaleplon, and zolpidem.

Caution travelers about taking hypnotics during a flight because the resulting immobility could increase the risk for deep vein thrombosis. Travelers should not use alcohol as a sleep aid, because it disrupts sleep and can provoke obstructive sleep apnea.

Exposure to bright light can advance or delay human circadian rhythms depending on when it is received in relation to a person’s body clock time. Consequently, some researchers have proposed schedules for good and bad times for light exposure after arrival in a new time zone.

The best circadian time for light exposure might be at a time that is dark after crossing multiple time zones, raising the question of whether a light box is helpful. One small randomized controlled trial on supplementary bright light for reducing jet lag did not find clinically relevant effects of supplementary light on jet lag symptoms after a flight across 5 time zones going west.

Melatonin & Melatonin-Receptor Analogs

Probably the most well-known treatment for jet lag, melatonin, is secreted at night by the pineal gland. Melatonin delays circadian rhythms when taken during the rising phase of body temperature (usually the morning) and advances rhythms when ingested during the falling phase of body temperature (usually the evening). These effects are opposite to those of bright light.

The instructions on most products advise travelers to take melatonin before nocturnal sleep in the new time zone, irrespective of the number of time zones crossed or direction of travel. Studies published in the mid-1980s indicated a substantial benefit of taking melatonin just before sleep to reduce overall feelings of jet lag after flights. Subsequent larger studies did not replicate these earlier findings, however, and more research on melatonin’s use in jet lag is needed.

Melatonin is a very popular sleep aid for jet lag in the United States, and no serious side effects have been linked to its use, although long-term studies have not been conducted. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health suggest that melatonin could be used to reduce symptoms of jet lag, although they caution that melatonin might not be safe when combined with some other medications. In addition, melatonin is considered a dietary supplement in the United States and is not regulated by the FDA. Therefore, the advertised concentration of melatonin has not been confirmed for most products on the market, and the presence of contaminants cannot be ruled out (see Sec. 2, Ch. 14, Complementary & Integrative Health Approaches to Travel Wellness ).

A recent UK Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin stated that melatonin might increase the frequency of seizures in people with epilepsy. In addition, because it can potentially induce proinflammatory cytokine production, melatonin should not be taken by those with autoimmune diseases. Due to the potential for these problems, and the limited evidence from randomized controlled trials for any benefits, melatonin is not recommended in the United Kingdom.

Ramelteon, a melatonin-receptor agonist, is an FDA-approved treatment for insomnia. One milligram taken just before bedtime can decrease sleep onset latency after eastward travel across 5 time zones. Higher doses do not seem to lead to further improvements, and the effect of this medication on other symptoms of jet lag and the timing of circadian rhythms is unclear. In a well-designed multicenter trial involving simulated jet lag conditions, tasimelteon (a dual melatonin-receptor agonist) improved jet lag symptoms, including nighttime insomnia and daytime functioning; real-world evidence is needed to support or refute its use in the amelioration of jet lag.

Mobile Applications

Several mobile device applications (apps) can provide tailored advice to manage jet lag symptoms. Depending on how many time zones the traveler has passed through.  Timeshifter provides advice on when to use caffeine, light, melatonin, and sleep. Another app offering tailored advice was tested for use over several months of frequent flying. Participants reported reduced fatigue compared with the comparator group and improved aspects of health-related behavior (e.g., physical activity, snacking, and sleep quality) but not other measures of sleep (e.g., duration, latency, use of sleep-related medication). Although this and other apps are based on information from published laboratory-based experiments, they lack randomized controlled trials on their effectiveness for reducing jet lag symptoms after actual long-haul flights.

Combination Treatments

Multiple therapies to decrease jet lag symptoms can be combined into treatment packages. Marginal gains from multiple treatments could aggregate. In one small trial, a treatment package involving light exposure and sleep hygiene advice improved sleep quality and physical performance after an eastward flight across 8 time zones. The American Sleep Association offers general sleep hygiene advice .

In general, no cure is available for jet lag. Instead, focus counseling on factors known from laboratory simulations to alter circadian timing. Until more randomized controlled trials of treatments prescribed before, during, or after transmeridian flights are published, focus on providing robust, evidence-based advice.

The following authors contributed to the previous version of this chapter: Greg Atkinson, Ronnie Henry, Alan M. Batterham, Andrew Thompson

Bibliography

Bin YS, Ledger S, Nour M, Postnova S, Stamatikis E, Cistulli PA, et al. How do travelers manage jetlag and travel fatigue? A survey of passengers on long-haul flights. Chronobiol Int. 2020;37(11):1621–8. 

Herxheimer A. Jet lag. BMJ Clin Evid. 2014;2014:2303. 

Janse van Rensburg DC, Fowler P, Racinais S. Practical tips to manage travel fatigue and jet lag in athletes. Br J Sports Med. 2021;55(15):821–2. 

Ledger S, Bin YS, Nour M, Cistulli P, Bauman A, Allman-Farinelli M, et al. Internal consistency and convergent and divergent validity of the Liverpool jetlag questionnaire. Chronobiol Int. 2020;37(2):218–26. 

Melatonin for jet lag. Drug Ther Bull. 2020;58(2):21–4. 

Ruscitto C, Ogden J. The impact of an implementation intention to improve mealtimes and reduce jet lag in long-haul cabin crew. Psychol Health. 2016;32(1):61–77 

Thompson A, Batterham AM, Jones H, Gregson W, Scott D, Atkinson G. The practicality and effectiveness of supplementary bright light for reducing jet-lag in elite female athletes. Int J Sports Med. 2013;34(7):582–9. 

Van Drongelen A, Boot CR, Hlobil H, Twisk JW, Smid T, Van der Beek AJ. Evaluation of an mHealth intervention aiming to improve health-related behavior and sleep and reduce fatigue among airline pilots. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2014;40(6):557–68. 

Waterhouse J, Reilly T, Atkinson G, Edwards B. Jet lag: trends and coping strategies. Lancet. 2007;369(9567):1117–29.

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13 Ways to Ease Jet Lag

Changing time zones can be a drag — here's how to avoid it.

When I returned to Virginia after a recent seven-day trip in California, I felt lethargic for a week. I was tired. I couldn’t concentrate. Napping sounded way more enticing than exercising. The problem was jet lag, which hits me much harder at age 52 than it did in my 30s.

Jet lag occurs when our body clock isn’t in tune with a destination’s light-dark cycle. And after age 50, our circadian cycle generally adjusts to new time zones more slowly than when we’re younger, according to sleep coach Bill Fish. “Our bodies are creatures of habit, and it is more difficult to deviate from those habits as we age,” says Fish, cofounder of Tuck, which offers information on sleep and sleep products. Typically, it takes about one day per time zone for your body clock to adjust. Jet lag is also more intense traveling east than west.    

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You can’t prevent jet lag, but you can ease the symptoms. Here’s some advice from sleep experts and frequent travelers.

BEFORE YOU GO

Book a red-eye. That way you’re more likely to have a normal night’s sleep. Another option: Book flights so you arrive at your destination in the evening, closer to bedtime.

Shift your internal clocks. Before you leave home, adjust your bed and meal times by one hour each night for each time zone you’ll be traveling. Schedule earlier times for eastward travel and later times for going west.

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ON THE PLANE

Reset your watch. As soon as you’re on the plane, set your watch to the destination’s time and “get your mind into that zone,” says Peter Cistulli, a professor of sleep medicine at the University of Sydney.

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Eat meals on local time. Your body may think it’s 3 a.m., but if it’s 8 a.m. at your destination, and you’re awake on the plane, go ahead and eat breakfast. This will help you adjust to your new time zone. “I bring along snacks with protein in case the in-flight meal is not to my liking,” says Darley Newman, the host of Travels with Darley on PBS and Amazon Prime.

Choose the right foods. Don’t eat foods that make you feel bloated , full or, you know … gassy. When Qantas Airways launched a 17-hour nonstop route from Perth to London in March 2018, it introduced new menus to combat jet lag and encourage sleep. The menu includes dishes with ingredients that promote hydration — such as green leafy vegetables, cucumbers and strawberries; light dishes (including a tuna poke salad bowl); and hot chocolate for bedtime, which contains tryptophan to make you sleepy.

Chug some H2O. Your best beverage option: “Water, water, and more water,” says Melinda Crow, a writer for TravelPulse.com. “Some of the tiredness is actually dehydration.” Drink eight ounces of water for every hour that you fly, suggests Fish. Not only does it keep you hydrated, but it forces you to get up and use the restroom, which helps your circulation. A glass of wine is fine, but alcoholic and caffeinated drinks can affect your sleep — and booze can cause dehydration.

Let in some light. Light is the main stimulus for setting our body clocks, says Steve Simpson, director of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, who designed the Qantas program to ease jet lag. For the airline’s new 17-hour flight, designers created a lighting schedule that mimics sunlight and shifts passengers’ circadian rhythms to the destination’s time zone. What can the rest of us do? If you have a window seat, pull up the blind to let in natural light.

Make sure you’re comfy. The more relaxed you are, the more likely you are to rest. “I dress comfortably and in layers to stay warm or cool,” says Newman. “I stock my smartphone with soothing sounds (beach sounds for me) and predownload TV shows or movies that help me relax and tune out potential noisy neighbors.” She also carries a travel pillow, eye mask and fresh socks.

Sleep strategically. Align your sleep with the destination time rather than your departure time. Fish, the sleep coach, believes that unless you’re on a red-eye, you should avoid sleeping for longer than a 30-minute power nap. “The goal is to adjust your body to the new time zone as quickly as possible,” he says. “It may be a shock that first day, but it will be must easier for your body to adjust.”

ONCE YOU ARRIVE

Avoid long naps. If you arrive early in a new time zone, try to stay up — and don’t nap for longer than two hours, the National Sleep Foundation suggests. Adhere to the schedule of your destination: Eat when people are eating and sleep when they’re sleeping, says Fish.

Go outside. Sunlight helps your body clock adjust to a new time zone. Spend time outside in the morning if you traveled east or in the afternoon if you traveled west. “I do everything possible to get my face in the sunshine as soon as possible after I land,” says Crow, who also takes B12 the first few mornings for energy.

Take some melatonin. Travel writer Tim Leffel follows a simple formula when he arrives at a destination: “Get on local time ASAP, sun on skin during the day, melatonin at night.” It you take melatonin, do it about 30 minutes before you go to bed (and check with your doctor first). As little as a 0.5 mg dose can ease jet-lag symptoms, one study found.

Try a jet-lag calculator. JetLagRooster.com is a free site where you enter your travel data and receive an hour-by-hour plan for sleeping and seeking sunshine (and avoiding it). Lumie.com and British Airways also offer calculators.

Ken Budd has written for  National Geographic Traveler , Travel+Leisure , The Washington Post Magazine  and many more. He is the author of a memoir,  The Voluntourist.

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• IV Drips Are the Newest Luxury Travel Flex

People are now using IVs to treat all sorts of ailments, from jet lag to hangovers.

Tori latham, tori latham's most recent stories.

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IV drips have been well documented as hangover cures , but the medical services are gaining a new status as luxury travel amenity.

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And when you feel like another step might do you in, these companies come right to you. PureDropIV, for example, does house calls in the area. The I.V. Doc, founded by Adam Nadelson in New York City, often sees clients at some of the city’s most luxe hotels, including the Ritz-Carlton, the Four Seasons, the Plaza, and Aman, Nadelson told The Washington Post . “You name the hotel,” he said, “we’ve certainly been there.” And now the hotels themselves are getting into the IV game: A handful of Four Seasons spas have an IV drip among their services, and at the Ranch in Malibu and the Hudson Valley, you can be revitalized poolside.

Given that IV drips can be used for all sorts of reasons, people take advantage of them in different ways, with the Post noting regional differences throughout the United States. In cities like D.C. and New York, users may book a pre-travel IV to boost immunity and energy before any ill effects take place. In Los Angeles and Miami, you might see more IVs given to people interested in longevity or biohacking. And in places like Las Vegas, IV drips are still largely used as morning-after remedies.

To some, the trend may seem a little suspect, and The Washington Post noted that there are people in the medical and wellness spaces who aren’t so sure about recreational IVs, for various health and safety reasons.

Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

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The Best Sleeping Pills for Flights—And When You Should Take Them

By Moira Lawler

If  noise-canceling headphones  don’t help you doze off, you may need to consider a more heavy-duty fix: sleeping pills for flights. Certainly, some flights don’t warrant sleeping aids—such as when you’re taking a short trip or traveling west against a time difference, says Aneesa Das, M.D. , a sleep medicine specialist at the Ohio State University (at that point you may as well stay awake). But if you’ll be on a plane overnight and waking up in a vastly different time zone, logging some shuteye on the plane is crucial to arriving refreshed—or close enough to it.

That’s when sleeping pills can help. For most people, they're a reliable solution if they have trouble sleeping on planes , and they’re always a better option than ordering wine when the beverage cart rolls around. “Alcohol will allow you to fall asleep more quickly, however most people will then experience very disrupted and fragmented sleep quality,” says Thomas Kilkenny, M.D. , director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital.

Here's what you should know—according to medical experts—about the most common sleeping pills for flights, including side effects to be aware of before you pop one.

This article has been updated with new information since its original publish date.

Ambien—the most powerful option on this list—is available by prescription only and works as a  sedative-hypnotic medication  that slows your brain activity to make you feel very sleepy. It’ll knock you out good—maybe even  too  good. Some users experience retroactive amnesia, which means you could wake up mid-flight, have a full conversation with the  flight attendant , and have no memory of it when morning comes, Das says.

Ambien can also lead to sleepwalking, which could result in some awkward bump-ins on the plane. “This is especially true if combined with alcohol or if not enough time is allowed for sleep,” Kilkenny says. He recommends having at least six or seven hours to sleep in order for the drug to metabolize, so avoid taking it on a short flight or when you have only a few hours to go before landing. But it's not all bad: Zolpidem (the generic name for Ambien) has been shown to fight off jet lag, per a 2018 review article published in Springer . Lunesta and Sonata are two other prescription-only sleep aids which work similarly to Ambien (they’re collectively known as Z-drugs).

Rozerem (the brand name for ramelteon) is another medication available by prescription, but it isn’t as aggressive as Ambien. “It’s a melatonin receptor stimulant and is unrelated to the Z-pills,” Kilkenny says. It may be a more attractive option for travelers as it reaches peak levels quickly and has a very short half-life, which means it won’t linger in your system as long. You’ll want to take an 8 milligram (mg) dose 30 minutes before you want to doze off. It likely won’t knock you out as well as Ambien, but research published in the Journal of Central Nervous System Disease in 2011 suggests that it will regulate your sleep-wake cycle to help your circadian rhythm adjust to a new time zone. Plus, it doesn’t come with the nasty side effects of the Z-drugs, Kilkenny says.

The over-the-counter medication is easy to pick up at the drugstore when you’re stocking up on travel-sized shampoos and other carry-on essentials . Diphenhydramine, the same antihistamine found in Benadryl, will likely put you to sleep, though you may pay the price once you land. “It makes us feel really groggy when we wake up, and it can make us feel really hungover,” Das says. The antihistamine may also leave you with a dry mouth that those tiny airplane cups of water just can’t quench (not a good situation since flying in general can make you dehydrated). Still, Das says it’s okay to take so long as you’ve tolerated it in the past.

This hormone occurs naturally in the body, but taking an extra dose helps induce sleep and  adjust your circadian clock . That will help you function better at your destination and decrease the effects of jet lag, Kilkenny says. Start taking melatonin a few days before your trip, about four to six hours before your bedtime, so that you’re ready to hit the pillow 30 minutes to an hour earlier than normal, Das says.

A  2002 review from UK researchers  found melatonin decreases jet lag if you take it close to your target bedtime at your destination, especially if you’re traveling across five or more time zones. The researchers found doses of 0.5 and 5 mg were equally effective at  preventing jet lag , though the larger (maximum) dose will help you fall asleep quicker and sleep better.

Another plus? There are no major side effects to worry about—melatonin shifts the circadian rhythm with minimal side effects, the Springer article found. (Note: The FDA does regulate dietary supplements such as melatonin, but these regulations are less strict than those for prescription or over-the-counter medications. Check with your doctor for an appropriate recommendation.)

No matter which medication you decide to go with (if any), there are a few ground rules to follow. First, give it a test run at home. “You want to know how your body tolerates it before you go,” Das says. Then, once you’re settled into your seat, remember to  pass on booze  and don’t pop the medicine until the flight attendants have gone over  safety instructions .

Condé Nast Traveler does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a substitute for medical advice, and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.

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Expert tips for surviving a long flight in economy class and avoiding jet lag

S itting in a pressurized aluminum tube for hours at a time takes a heavy toll on your body. So how do the pros survive a long flight in economy class? And how do they avoid jet lag?

Here’s how Akshay Nanavati does it: First, he drinks water — lots of water — to stay hydrated. Second, he stays up the night before his flight and brings an eye mask so that he can sleep on the plane. That helps him adjust to new time zones faster.

His lesson came at a price. Nanavati recently flew from New York to Bangalore — an 18-hour trip — and when he got there, he was wiped out. He hadn’t prepared and ordered a few Bloody Marys, which severely dehydrated him.

“I arrived in India groggy,” recalls Nanavati, a consultant based in Basking Ridge, N.J. “I couldn’t work or spend quality time with my family for two full days.”

Taking a long flight in economy class? Here’s what you’re up against

Surviving a long-haul flight in economy class isn’t easy. Potential side effects include dehydration, feeling sick from high altitude , fatigue and an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis, a potentially fatal condition. And we are all spending more time on planes. Numerous surveys suggest that post-pandemic, Americans are traveling farther than ever. There’s one main thing you can do to ensure your survival — I’ll get to that in a minute.

New research conducted by the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Center has taken an interdisciplinary approach to preventing the fatigue associated with marathon flights. Scientists are reviewing issues including nutrition, physical activity and sleep, hoping to help travelers avoid reactions like Nanavati’s.

Preliminary results suggest that a combination of exercise and eating comfort foods at the right time can prevent the most serious jet lag.

The project is a collaboration with Qantas, which is using the results to develop a new approach to long-haul travel ahead of its ultra-long-haul flights between Sydney and New York and London.

“We’re developing a suite of interventions and services that support health and wellness in the air and assist in shifting body clocks to ease the effects of jet lag,” says Perkins Center Academic Director Stephen Simpson. 

Passengers need more room to survive a long-haul flight in economy class

Of course, one of the easiest ways to avoid jet lag — and lessen the risk of deep vein thrombosis — is to offer passengers a reasonable amount of personal space. In an effort to squeeze more people onto planes, airlines have reduced the amount of legroom, a step that passenger advocates say can increase the likelihood of blood clots.

Philip Capps, the head of customer product and service development at Qantas, says the carrier’s long-haul aircraft have been designed to maximize comfort. 

“In business class, for example, the seats are laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration so that every passenger has direct aisle access,” he says. And economy class passengers will get 32 inches of seat pitch — a rough measure of legroom — compared with the Airbus A380’s 31 inches.

That’s a little better, but let’s be honest: 32 inches of seat pitch is still four inches shy of the old economy class. It’s a blood clot waiting to happen .

But how do you get through a whole day in economy class?

Spending more than 12 hours on a plane is a mind game, says LaVonne Markus, a travel agent with Travel Leaders in Stillwater, Minn. 

“You have to accept that it will be a long flight,” she says

I interviewed dozens of frequent fliers to find out how they managed to get through long flights and avoid jet lag. Here’s what they told me.

Choose the right airline

If you’re taking a long flight, don’t cut corners. On a recent trip from Madrid to Buenos Aires on a discount European airline that shall remain nameless, they tried to sell us bottled water and breakfast at the end of a 13-hour flight. I’m surprised the passengers didn’t mutiny. 

Your best bet is a seat on one of the Gulf carriers (Emirates, Etihad or Qatar Airways) or an airline specializing in long-haul flights, like Air New Zealand or Qantas. 

For example, Air New Zealand researched long-haul flying for five years, which led it to update its cabin with dynamic lighting to help reset your circadian rhythm. It also added a special cooling pillow for business class passengers developed by NASA. 

The airport in Doha, Qatar, has shopping, restaurants and an indoor green space that’s in a class by itself. Ian Bradley, a spokesman for Qatar Airways , says even economy class is a premium product. 

“For us, it comes down to common sense — giving passengers enough legroom, in-flight entertainment and amenity kits,” he says. 

Avoid all connections when you travel long distances

That’s the advice of Scott Jordan, a frequent traveler who runs a clothing company in Sun Valley, Idaho. He had just one connection on his recent flight from Salt Lake City to Johannesburg. 

“I slept most of the way,” he says. But on his return, he had multiple connections and delays, which left him exhausted. “The fewer connections,” he adds, “the better.” 

Dress the part

Wear loose clothing and bring a neck pillow, eye mask and noise-canceling headphones for a long flight. I prefer in-ear headphones (I use Sony’s WF-1000XM4, which also has excellent sound quality). 

Experienced air travelers say you should choose what you wear carefully to avoid jet lag. Take eye masks, for example. 

“Regular eye masks are not satisfactory,” says Nick H. Kamboj, CEO of a college admissions consulting company based in Chicago. “Choose an eye mask that leaves enough room for the eye and cushions your eye socket.”

Don’t stop drinking

You know the advice to stay hydrated on a plane? Make that a double on a long-haul flight, say experts. 

“Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate,” says Bob Bacheler, managing director of Flying Angels , a medical transport service. “And when you are done with that, hydrate more.” 

To avoid jet lag, Kylie Loyd, a travel advisor with Drift Destinations and a frequent traveler to Asia, doesn’t stop drinking on a plane. 

“I always bring a large water bottle with me to stay hydrated,” she says. “If you need more, never hesitate to ask a flight attendant. I bring my own tea bags — chamomile for when I’m trying to sleep or green tea for when I’m trying to stay awake.” Oh, and never, ever drink alcohol. On a long flight, it’s poison. 

Remember the compression socks

Your risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is significantly higher on long-haul flights. Not moving for more than 10 hours can cause a deadly blood clot. 

Camille Yeager, a travel advisor with Travel Leaders Network , recalls it happening to one of her young clients recently. She spent the next few months on medication. 

“Today, I won’t fly anywhere without compression socks,” she says. 

Pro tip: Take a blood thinner before your flight. Ed Horenburger, who frequently flies from the United States to China, says his doctor recommended aspirin.

“Thinning the blood a little will go a long way in preventing a blood clot,” he says.

Treat your jet lag before it becomes a problem

Transmeridian travel really wipes you out. On an ultra long-haul flight from Houston to Perth — a 14-hour time difference — I tried a new method for handling jet lag called FlyKitt, developed by a company called Fount. It uses an iPhone app, patented supplements and light-filtering glasses to adjust you to the new time zone quickly. Andrew Herr, Fount’s CEO, says the technology came from his work with Navy SEALs, where he discovered that the pressure change in flight causes inflammation.

 “If you stop that, you can rapidly shift your circadian rhythm,” he explained. 

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical. The app tells you when to sleep and when to take the pills, and I didn’t always follow the directions exactly, especially on the last leg of my flight from Doha to Perth, when I wasn’t supposed to sleep but did. Sure enough, I woke up early the next morning and had no jet lag.

Staying up late is only half the solution, says Topher Morrison, an education consultant in Tampa who travels frequently. 

“Don’t follow the flight feeding schedule,” he says. “Follow the landing’s feeding schedule.” In other words, if you’re flying to Sydney, have lunch when it’s lunchtime in Sydney — even if it means getting up in the middle of the night to eat.

And whatever you do on a long flight, move!

If you’re in economy class, you’ll be sitting in an upright position for hours at a time. 

“Get up and move,” advises Jeremy Smith, a spine surgeon at Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Irvine, Calif. Smith says you should give your body a break by standing up every 30 to 45 minutes. And don’t forget to bring a comfortable travel pillow for neck support.

In fact, if you do only one thing on your next long-haul flight, make sure you move, survivors like Kelly Merritt say. I use the term “survivor” literally. After a series of lengthy flights, she developed a pulmonary embolism that nearly killed her. She says her physician told her that flying was a contributing factor.

“It’s critical for travelers on long-haul flights to stay active during all aspects of the flight,” says Merritt, an author who lives in Pilot Mountain, N.C. “This can mean wiggling your feet and toes, getting up to walk around, anything that keeps the blood from pooling in your feet.”

Until science comes through with a workaround, this may be the best advice of all. If you want to survive, move.